Within hours, cheers, celebration at Tikri gave way to clashes, chaos
NEW DELHI: The farmers were supposed to leave at 12 noon in their tractors from Tikri border, turn off at Nagloi towards Najafgarh and proceed further to the Kundli–manesar–palwal expressway, finally returning to the site where they have been camping for more than two months. Instead, they left at 8.30 am and within three hours, many of them had broken police barricades to travel on another route. By evening, many tractors had broken away from the convoy to proceed towards Red Fort, where other farmers had also congregated.
In the Tikri tractor parade, the atmosphere was convivial: gleaming tractors adorned with tricolour flags blared Punjabi and Haryanvi songs, as thousands of farmers — most of them men — waved at the residents who had gathered on rooftops and balconies to watch what promised to be a spectacle unlike anything else.
Even though it was meant to be a tractor parade, many rode bikes, drove jeeps, and walked along, holding the Indian flag as well as those of farmers organisations. Residents of many neighbourhoods showered flower petals over them. Many distributed packets of water along the way; large vessels bearing rice and dal awaited the hungry protesters. At Mundka, a group of local residents organised a dance set to the beat of dhols for their entertainment. Posters with the message, “We support farmers” were spotted at different locations.
When the farmers reached Nangloi at 11 am, the cheer and celebration turned into clashes within 45 minutes, as some farmer groups breached their route agreement and tried to move on roads they did not have permission for. The protestors removed the police barricades — including the concrete ones — and made their way towards Peeragarhi at around 11.50am. The police responded by using tear gas to disperse the crowd, and some even used their cane sticks on protestors. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation closed down stations that lay along this route, and later shut down the entire Green Line that ends at Tikri Kalan.
By 5pm, several tractors had made their way towards Red Fort, even as a majority of them had turned back towards their Tikri campsite. “We had requested the police to peacefully allow us to take out the march till the Red Fort. They denied and started firing tear gas shells. Farmers got provoked and removed the barricades,” said Amandeep Singh, a farmer from Rohtak.
Among the protesters was 70-year-old Roshini Kaur who rode on a tractor driven by her daughter-in-law Harpreet Kaur (28). A resident of Haryana’s Jind district, Kaur said that she has been staying at the Tikri border for the last one month. “We are poor farmers and we will lose everything if we won’t fight against these three farm laws now. We are already indebted. We are not left with much to lose now,” she said.
Farm union leaders at Tikri border maintained that those who indulged in violence and vandalism were not part of any union or organisation. “Majority of the protesters took the approved route and peacefully took out the parade. We reached back at our protest site by 7.15 pm. Those who created ruckus were not the members of any farm organisation,” said Baldev Singh, district president of BKU (Dkunda) in Bhatinda.